Meg's Back! Speaks at Conference

John Seiler:

Meg Whitman has mostly ducked the public eye since being wiped out in last November’s election for governor, after wasting around $180 million of her own dough. But she just made a speech at conference on the economy at the George W. Bush Institute.

Of course, the main thing most people think about when they hear “Bush” and “economy” is “economic depression.” The economy crashed because of his policies: record deficits and debt, inflationary wild spending and low interest rates that caused a housing boom-bust.

Meg spake thusly:

My view is that the immigration discussion, the rhetoric the Republican Party uses, is not helpful; it’s not helpful in a state with the Latino population we have. We as a party are going to have to make some changes, how we think about immigration, and how we talk about immigration.

But she’s the one who got ex-Gov. Pete Wilson to star in ads insisting she was “tough as nails” on immigration. And she’s the one who hired Nicky Diaz, the illegal immigrant housekeeper. And Meg, against all political logic, didn’t reveal that info early in the campaign to get it over with. Instead, she waited until celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred broke the story.

And Meg…oh, never mind! The campaign was the worst I’ve ever seen in 47 years of watching politics. She would have lost even if she had spent $180 billion.

Of course, Republicans need a new immigration policy. But so do Democrats, something she isn’t willing to talk about, either. The major reason people remain upset about immigration is because America’s generous welfare state costs way too much, with billions going to those who are here illegally. This, in turn, has effectively bankrupted California.

As the late Nobel economist Milton Friedman pointed out, you can’t have both a welfare state and open borders. The welfare state quickly attracts so many more clients that the welfare state goes broke — as ours has.

So, Democrats, how about it? Will you end the welfare state? Or will you let California and the rest of America continue to go broke?

March 13, 2011